Conventionally, a vehicle handle is joined (attached) to a door panel through a handle joining section thereof. For example, a handle of a side door is mounted approximately horizontally on a door panel.
Recently, in terms of vehicle handles of this type, vehicle handles automatically unlocking a door when a vehicle user possessing an electronic key or electronic card to prove his or her identity as user approaches the door and touches the handle, and vehicle handles performing locking when the user exits from inside the vehicle and operates a manual switch mounted on the handle have existed as systems performing unlock and lock operations of a door. Systems of this type are called smart entry systems and have unlock operation sensors (called “detection sensors” in the present application) in order to execute unlocking of a door in cases where the above-described user touches the handle. Static-electricity type capacity sensors are typical of unlock operation sensors of this type.
Vehicle handles having a function detecting the fact that a user as mentioned above has touched a handle have existed up to now (patent document 1).
In the construction described in this document, the capacity of equivalent parallel plate electrodes formed between a sensor electrode installed inside a vehicle handle and a body is used, and a change in capacity occurring as a result of an object of a different medium constant to that of air, for example, a hand of a user, entering between the handle and the body is detected.
A touch sensor using a plurality of electrodes is also known (patent document 2) as an example using a capacity detection type sensor of this variety.
In this conventional art, with an aim of guaranteeing favorable operation in poor environments such as when exposed to a large volume of rain water, the vehicle handle is encased, sealant (posting material as indicated in paragraph number 0070) is injected into the space inside the case and hardened, waterproofing is performed, and detection performance is guaranteed (this construction will be referred to as “conventional construction 1”).
Meanwhile, vehicle handles having a waterproof construction making the entire outer frame of the vehicle handle a single body and requiring no injection of sealant into the entire interior of the case also exist (this construction will be referred to as “conventional construction 2”).    Patent document 1: JP 2001-520337A (FIG. 1)    Patent document 2: JP 2003-221949A (claim 3, paragraph 0070)
However, when employing the above-mentioned conventional construction 1, mass-productivity becomes limited as the construction becomes complicated, such as requiring an injection step for the sealant.
Meanwhile, when employing the above-mentioned conventional construction 2, since waterproofing at the outer frame side becomes necessary, the space that can be put to effective use within limited space of the vehicle handle becomes restricted. Furthermore, protection regions, which are originally unneeded and are not product functions, become necessary.
The present application, for example, consists of providing a vehicle handle that can be supplied for a smart entry system capable of guaranteeing favorable operation in a poor environment.